Chronicles of Melinar, Chapter 1
by Laez
Summary: Following in his fathers footsteps, a young boy dreams of a bright future. In his quest to become the greatest in the world, will Steven be able to overcome the obstacles in his way?


"You have control over doing your respective duty, but no control or claim over the result. Fear of failure, from being emotionally attached to the fruit of work, is the greatest impediment to success because it robs efficiency by constantly disturbing the equanimity of mind." ― Ramananda Prasad

It was a dark and stormy night. Or it would have been, if there was any justice in the world. After everything that I had gone through to make it to this point, a little bit of a grand entrance is all I ask for. As I felt the ship roll into the dock with a solid thunk, the last words my father said to me echoed through my ears.

"Don't worry Steven, We'll see each other again soon."

I clutched my father's deck tight in my hand, and walked out into the light to follow in my hero's footsteps.

 _Melinar Duel Academy._

Just the very name brings with it a certain image, of a grand place where duelist from all over the world gather to hone their craft. Taking in the spiraling towers that seemed to reach heaven itself, my mind drifted off to why I was here in the first place. It was here that my father started his legend, as the greatest student they ever had. Hopefully by following in his footsteps, I can find out why he left us.

"Oi, ya daft newbie? Registration iz over der!"

I nearly jumped out of my skin hearing the dockworker yell at me. Great start to a new school. I grabbed my bag and dashed to the white-uniformed members of the school, and joined my spot at the end of the long line. While I waited and shuffled through the painfully slow line, I looked around to study the place that would be my new home for the next few forest wasn't as beautiful as the brochure made it out to be, but the beach was so much better in person. The cool sea breeze blowing over us made the long line in the midday sun actually quite enjoyable. Since this was taking forever, I figured I may as well try to make some friends.

I turned around, and behind me was a boy who looked about my age, slightly taller than me with messy dirty blonde hair right above his dark eyes. Honestly, if we were not in such a straight line he could have blended into a crowd just about anywhere. It struck me as a bit weird that such a generic looking person really existed, but either way I thrust out my hand to offer him a handshake.

"Nice to meet you, my name's Steven! What's yours?"

The boy gave a small smile while he returned the handshake "Victor. A pleasure to meet you."

I would have kept talking to him, but apparently the line was moving a lot faster now than it was at first, and my turn had come up. I walked up to the stand, and pulled out my ID.

"Steven Monroe, huh? My, my, you have quite a reputation to live up to here" the worker chuckled as he verified my ID with his official paperwork. "There we go Mr Monroe. Your placement match will take place through the door behind me. Go down the hallway, second door on your left. I look forward to seeing you in action."

The worker reached behind his counter and handed me a duel disk, all shiny and new. The ones that we had back home still had the foldout blades, but the slick chrome dome on these newer disks looked much lighter, and I could even see the new light disk emitter on the side. I put my arm over the table while he showed me how to take it on and off comfortably without hurting myself.

After I walked away from the desk, I released a breath I didn't even realize I was holding. I was finally here, at duel academy. I took another deep breath, and walked through the doors and to my destiny.

"Second door to my left…"

Murmuring to myself, I walked down the cool hallway to the wooden door. Walking down the halls, it gave off the feeling of an old european castle, and started to really hope that the dorms were built of a better material. Cold stone walls make for a cool entrance, but not someplace I would want to live.

Since no one was around, I opened my door to find find yet ANOTHER door and a comfortable-looking bench, right across from a TV screen. On the tv screen, two duelist were having an epic class in the middle of a gymnasium style room. Their names and life points were display for everyone to see, as well their monsters. One, a great wooden giant, gave off the feeling of an aloof goddess with her wings of strings spread out halfway across the arena. I almost felt bad for the small silver armored knight standing in front of her. Even with his dragon wings, and who knows what else he was hiding, it was a true David vs Goliath moment.

Glowing purple strings clashed with shining heroic sword, but it was obvious who the victor was going to be by the sheer size difference in the monsters. A flash of light, and the sword wielding warrior disappeared along with the remaining life points of the small boy behind him. The girl on the other side threw her her long hair over her shoulder and walked off, as though this outcome had already been decided in her mind.

"This place is SO COOL!" I jumped for joy, nearly hitting the academy worker who opened the door at the same time.

He grinned nearly ear to ear, as he stepped aside and pointed to the same gym like area I was looking at just a moment ago

"Glad to see you're so excited. Buckle up buttercup, you're next."

Melinars entrance exams may have been famous the world over for their difficulty, but my dad had a lot of friends at the academy, and I was able to breeze right through all of the boring paperwork and get straight to the exciting stuff.

I walked up to a marked off section of the gym floor, while another academy worker escorted a different student to a similar marked area on the other side of the room. He was a bored and tired larger looking kid, with short black curly hair that drooped over his face. Against someone like that, I shouldn't have any issues.

The worker who had opened the door for me walked to the middle of the arena, and spun around to address the cameras and small crowd of other students and academy workers that had gathered to watch the festivities.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! For the next round of the Melinar Duel Academy Entrance Exams, I present to you Steven and Walter! Best of luck to both duelist!"

As the worker walked off the stage, Walter and I raised our duel disks towards each other, as arcs of light flew from our disks and covered the arena. Once the two beams of light hit each other, they swirled together to form a giant coin that spun and launched into the air with a small firework display. The coin landed and displayed my face and name, meaning I got to decide who went first. I looked over to Walter, and saw the 4000 display to the upper right of his name with a small red line pointing to right above his head. Should be easy enough to reduce his life points to zero, and move on to the top of the class from the very beginning.

"I'll take the first move!" I declared, triggering the voice activated system in my duel disk to shuffle my deck, and raise the top five cards to easy form my starting hand. I fanned out the cards of my opening hand, to figure out how I wanted to start off my first real duel. Opening all monsters that can't summon themselves would normally be terrible, but my father's deck contained a secret.

"I place the scale seven Zefranui, treasure of the Yang Zing and the scale one Ritual Beast Tamer Zeframpilica in my pendulum zones! With this, I can summon monsters between level 2 and 6 from my hand." The secret of my father's, and now my, deck. What does it matter if your monsters can't summon themselves, if you can bring them out for free, and they never die?  
Two beams of light emitted to either side of me, raising up all the way to the ceiling. In the pillar to my left, a sleeping celestial dragon slowly opened his eyes and a number seven formed in from of it. At the same time, a small green haired girl floated up the pillar to my right, and a one formed in front of her.

"Come forth my mighty warriors! Satellarknight Zefraxciton! Zefraxa, Flame Beast of the Nekroz! Shaddoll Zefracore!" A blue portal opened up between the pillars, and three orbs of light flew out to my side of the field. As the light faded, there stood before me a golden warrior covered in armor of light, a great blue reptilian warrior clad in flames, and a black and white golem with wild hair. I decided to leave Zefraxciton and Zefraxa in attack position, since they were two of the strongest monsters in my deck, and summoned Zefracore in defence position as a safety net. "And with that, I end my turn."

Walter seemed taken back at the field I had presented before him. Obviously in fear of the terrifying board I had made.

"I…. okay then" Walter drew his card for the turn, and examined his hand. "I normal summon the tuner monster Unizombie in attack position"

And with that, a grotesque zombie pulled itself out of the ground and turned to reveal that it was in fact, a double zombie. Two bodies, stitched together to form one messed up undead duet.

"Now I activate the effect of Unizombie. By sending a monster from my deck to the graveyard, I can increase the level of one face up monster on the field by one. I send Wightprince from my deck to the graveyard, and increase Unizombies level by one." A small skeletal child appeared on Walters side of the field, before diving into a purple portal that appeared in front of him.

"When Wightprince is sent to the graveyard, I can send one Skull Servant and one Lady in Wight from my deck to the graveyard." Two more skeletons appeared in front of Walter, before following their zombie friend down the dark hole. "Then I activate the other effect of Unizombie. By discarding a card, I can increase the level of a face up monster on the field by one. And the card I discard is another Wightprince."

With that, yet ANOTHER skeleton appeared to jump straight from Walters hand and dive straight into the now familiar graveyard portal. "And of course, when he is sent to the graveyard, his spooky friends join the ride"

Two more skeletons went from his deck to the grave. I was starting to wonder if this guy was mad, throwing away his deck like that.

"Next I activate the effect of wightprince in the graveyard. By banishing it, and two other Skull Servants in my graveyard, I can special summon one King of the Skull Servants straight from my deck." In front of Walter, a skeletal man pulled itself out from the ground beside Unizombie. The new skeletons purple cape may have once been regal, but now looked like nothing but rags. When the skeleton pulled itself out, a small circle appeared in front of it, revealing its attack points.

"Th-three thousand attack!?" I couldn't help myself, that was more attack than even my Zefraxa, the best card in my deck.

"Of course. My spooky king here gains one thousand attack for every skull servant and wight in my graveyard." Walter chuckled as he pulled another card out of his hand "And now I activate the effect of Wightmare in my hand. By discarding Wightmare, I can return one of my wight monsters from my banished zone to the graveyard. And I return Wightprince to my grave, triggering his effect again!"

With that, a trifecta of skeletons appeared once again on Walters field, and the King of the Skull Servants attack went up by another four thousand for a ginormous total of 7000.

"Now, King of the Skull Servants! Attack Zefraxa!"

The king pulled back his fist, and punched clean through my most powerful monster. Simulated shockwaves flew past me, as my life points instantly dropped to zero.

"I… lost…"

I couldn't believe it. Me. Lose. With the best deck in the world.

I was absolutely numb while the academy workers escorted Walter and I down separate hallways. I was lead up a grand staircase, and before a giant wooden door.

"Steven, the headmaster would like a word with you." The worker that had been my escort so far opened the door, and beckoned me in.

Inside, a window that took up an entire wall overlooked the harbour that my ship had come in on, the grand beach, and even part of the forest on the island. A dark wooden desk sat in front of the window, with an older looking man standing behind it, looking at a screen built into the desk. From the sounds coming from the screen, I knew it was a recording of my embarrassing defeat.

The old man turned around, and I got a better look at the legendary headmaster of Melinar Duel Academy. With short grey hair, and small glasses, he gave off the impression of a kind grandfather. The red vest he wore over his white shirt gave off a very casual appearance as well, which was fitting for a man like him. The only person my father ever considered a true rival.

"Hello Steven. My name is Markus. Please, have a seat." The headmaster motioned to two open chairs in front of his desk, and of course you do what the headmaster says, so take a seat I did.

"Steven, I will be blunt with you. That is quite possibly the worst duel I have seen since I took the headmaster position here. You're quite lucky I don't put you on the next boat out of here." Markus sighed as he played with the screen on his desk, pulling up more information about me and my duel. "Luckily, your father was a very good friend of mine, and I happen to see some potential in you. I must ask though Steven, you had two level four monsters on the field, why did you not do an XYZ summon? There are quite a few XYZs that could have helped you out in that situation, or at least bought you a turn."

"Uh, what's an eck-ceed summon?" I seemed to recall some people talking about that before, but it was something that I had never learned. I guess I had been privileged enough that where I came from, no one had to use such a tactic.

Markus seemed taken back at the very thought. "Steven, you mean to tell me you came to Melinar Duel Academy, _the_ premier duel academy in the world, and have no clue about one of the most popular styles of extra deck summoning?"

I couldn't help shaking in fear. I had come so close, was my journey going to end here already? Was it all to end so close to what I wanted most in my life? Was this really it?

Markus sat down in his chair, and leaned his chin in his hand while playing more with the screen on his desk. "Steven, I have a proposal. Regardless of your terrible first duel and track record, I would be willing to accept you still here at Melinar, on a probationary status on one condition. You will participate in supplementary programs, as well as enroll in the XYZ class as a start. If any of your teachers feel that you are slacking off, or that you are not up to Melinar standards, that's it. No second chances. Tylor may be a good friend of mine, but I will _not_ let a friendship ruin what this school stands for, do I make myself clear?"

The harshness of his voice clashed with the way he presented himself just a few minutes ago, leaving no room for error. "O-of course, sir."

Markus relaxed at the those words, and smiled. "Very good. Well with that Steven, I would like to formally welcome you to Melinar Duel Academy, and best of luck with your future."


End file.
